Sands China President and Chief Operating Officer Dr Wilfred Wong has responded to comments by Galaxy Entertainment Group Vice Chairman Francis Lui about the high Macau gaming tax rate, insisting operators have a “social obligation” to contribute to the city’s revenue stream.
Speaking at G2E Asia on Tuesday morning, Mr Lui highlighted the current 39% tax rate as an issue in operators remaining competitive in the face of growing regional competition from a number of jurisdictions offering considerably lower taxation.
But Dr Wong said it is important for operators to recognize the privileged position they are in.
“As an operator, the tax rate obviously impacts on our bottom line and Macau is not known for a low tax regime in this respect, but we must remember that we are concessions,” he said during a G2E Asia conference panel on Wednesday. “We are given a concession as operators unlike in Las Vegas where you can apply (for a license) and there is really no limit on the number of operators.
“We’re privileged to have a concession here. We know we have social obligations because Macau still relies very heavily on the gaming industry and it is still a very significant source of revenue for the government, so it’s up to the government to really look at this … obviously we would not advocate for any increase in gaming tax.”
However, Dr Wong did agree with comments by Mr Lui that the DICJ should speed up its process in regards to the approval of new gaming products for the Macau market.
“The DICJ has a new director (Paulo Martins Chan) that has been put in place in the past two years,” he said. “In this respect he is putting his team together and we believe if he can expedite the introduction of new games, that will facilitate us providing more variety of products to our customers.”
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